Short Fiction · Chapter
The Legend of San Jacinto explained
A Post reporter visits the San Jacinto battleground seeking local legends, but instead encounters a hermit who attempts to tell an endlessly nested, recursive story about the legend, passing through generations of tellers.
What happens
A Post reporter visits the San Jacinto battleground seeking local legends, but instead encounters a hermit who attempts to tell an endlessly nested, recursive story about the legend, passing through generations of tellers. The reporter grows frustrated with the hermit's rambling and eventually flees back to his boat, leaving the actual legend untold.
Themes in this chapter
Humor and Irony
The chapter is a comedic satire of storytelling and journalism, with the hermit's infinitely nested legend and the reporter's exasperated reaction.
Nostalgia and the Passage of Time
The legend is passed down through generations, each teller recalling a previous one, emphasizing the fading and distortion of memory over time.
Characters to notice
- The Hermit
Aged man (75-80) with long white hair and silvery beard, living in a cabin on the San Jacinto battleground, who attempts to tell the legend but gets lost in nested storytelling.
- Unknown Narrator
The Post reporter who visits the battleground seeking stories, but becomes impatient with the hermit's recursive tale and flees.
Key passages
“A Texan who does not thrill at the mention of the locality where General Sam Houston and other gentlemen named after the counties of Texas, captured Santa Anna and his portable bar and side arms, is a baseborn slave.”
Any true Texan feels deep pride at the site where Sam Houston and his men captured Santa Anna and his equipment.
Establishes the cultural reverence for the San Jacinto battleground.
“The aged hermit then frowned and reached under his coat tail, and the reporter ran swiftly, but in a dignified manner, to the Hoodoo Jane and embarked.”
The hermit frowned and reached for something under his coat, prompting the reporter to flee quickly but with composure back to the boat.
Climax of the humorous interaction; the reporter escapes the endless story.